Consortium Holdings To Rebrand Soda & Swine UCSD Location To Become Uncle Italian

September 14, 2021

Fresh off the opening of Seneca Italian restaurant in downtown San Diego, Consortium Holdings is in the process of rebranding their Soda & Swine location on the University of California San Diego campus to become Uncle Italian bar & restaurant.

In fall 2019, San Diego's ever-expanding Consortium Holdings hospitality group (also known as CH Projects) unveiled the $2 million, 14,000 square-foot third location of Soda & Swine on the University of California San Diego campus in the space occupied by Porter's Pub for more than two decades. Since then, CH rebranded the original Soda & Swine concept in Normal Heights to become Fortunate Son Chinese restaurant and shuttered the Liberty Station location after a 5 year run. With the company continually updating their locations, they've decided to abandon the Soda & Swine brand and reconceptualize the UCSD space. 

Uncle Italian will be a bar & restaurant with a menu of East Coast-style Italian food dishes ranging from  pasta, to salads, snacks and desserts, as well as Detroit-style pizza. The menu is currently being developed by CH Corporate Chef Jason McLeod with cocktails from Beverage Director Anthony Schmidt. The expansive space will boast a 14 foot high silo firepit bar table on the front patio, an interior dining area and bar adorned with wood and gold, and 24 beer taps extending from the ceiling behind the central bar. The all-day eatery will offer a coffee and breakfast menu in the morning, as well as lunch and dinner offerings. The restaurant will also offer options to accommodate students with dietary restrictions like vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free.

The design of the former Soda & Swine UCSD space will stay mostly the same. 

San Diego native and UCSD alumni Arsalun Tafazoli began Consortium Holdings hospitality company in 2007 with the opening of Neighborhood in San Diego's East Village. Consortium Holdings now has over a dozen concepts around San Diego, including cocktail-focused Polite Provisions, classy dive bar El Dorado, neighborhood bar & restaurant Craft & Commerce with adjacent tiki-speakeasy False Idol, two locations of its Japanese fusion restaurant Underbelly, modern barbershop Dover Honing Co., seafood-centric Ironside Fish & Oyster, bi-level steakhouse Born & Raised, Westfield UTC bottle shop and speakeasy Raised By Wolves, brunch-centered Morning Glory, Chinese restaurant Fortunate Son, and industry-focused East Village sandwich shop and Negroni bar J & Tony's Discount Cured Meats and Negroni Warehouse with neighboring coffee shop Invigatorium in partnership with San Diego's Modern Times Beer. Earlier this year, Consortium Holdings purchased North Park's 75-year-old The Lafayette Hotel, Swim Club & Bungalows for more than $25 million. This summer, they opened Seneca Italian trattoria on the 19th floor of the InterContinental Hotel in San Diego's downtown marina district. 

In addition to Uncle Italian, the restaurant group also has several additional concepts in the works, including a members-only social house The Reading Club opening next door to Seneca restaurant. There is also a new concept in the works for North Park called Leila and Consortium Holdings co-founder Arsalun Tafazoli has purchased the shopping plaza at 3401 Adams Avenue in Normal Heights, which sits across the street from Blind Lady AleHouse and approximately a half mile from CH's Polite Provisions. There is no word yet on what is planned for that space. Arsalun also took over ownership of Bar Pink in North Park last year and plans to convert the space to become a new cocktail bar dubbed Part Time Lover.

Uncle Italian is anticipated to open at some point this October at 105 Eucalyptus Grove Lane on the University of California San Diego Campus in La Jolla. For more information, visit uncleitalian.com and check out Uncle Italian's launch menu below.